India Preparing Grounds For Hanging Kashmiri Political Leader Yasin Malik

On 26th May, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought the death sentence for Kashmiri leader Muhammad Yasin Malik after he was given life in prison. Malik, chief of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Indian court last year for his involvement in the Kashmiri struggle for freedom. He was booked under false charges of “terror-financing”.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which had previously been denied a death sentence for Yasin Malik by the trial court on the grounds that it should be reserved for crimes that deeply disturb society, has now submitted a fresh petition to the high court in New Delhi, seeking capital punishment for Malik. The hanging of Yasin Malik may be sold by the Hindu nationalist government to the right-wing vote-bank as a proof of India’s iron-fist policies in Kashmir.

Yasin Malik, the leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), played a significant role in one of the earliest armed freedom-fighting groups in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The JKLF advocated for an independent and unified Kashmir. Under Malik’s leadership, the group renounced armed resistance in 1994.